A Bigger Voice

How Coke Created The Real Thing

Real as in authentic reactions of delight, happiness, and joy.  See this video that speaks not only to creating with your customer but to the difference between improv and a stage play (hat tip to Simon Young for that wonderful analogy):

Stories like these can easily go viral, as the 2M+ replays of this video can attest to.

The lesson for wisdom entrepreneurs? Attracting others doesn't have to be rooted in a serious and weighty appeal. Try the element of surprise, a bit of humor, and goodness that transcends the everyday tit for tat.

Branding Lessons from BMW and Salvation Army

To attract kindred spirits to your community, it's important to know your brand. Earlier this year, BMW had a hefty poster-size insert in the Wall Street Journal, with photos of their cars and this text:

We do not make cars.

We are the creators of emotion.

We are the keepers of thrill.

We are the guardians of one three-letter word.

JOY. 

No one needs a BMW. But the excitement and thrill of owning one leads to joy. I can imagine they are attracting the people they want with this branding.

Now for something completely different, I was at the Salvation Army thrift store recently. It's one of my favorite places to shop. You can spend 10 bucks and feel like you got ten times your money's worth. When the woman put my purchases in the bright red bag, with a white ribbons for handles, I could have sworn I was shopping at Talbots. It was off-message for a place that I identified with being frugal. Inside, I was thinking, "What a waste. Who ordered those bags?"   Instead, I remarked to the cashier, "Those are awfully nice bags."  To which she replied, "Oh, we were supposed to get them in for Christmas, but instead we have them for Easter." 

Someone at the head office must have felt that better packaging was right in line with what their customers wanted.  Too bad they missed the point.  Most of their customers want a good deal, not a status bag.

What this means for wisdom entrepreneurs: Make sure you are providing a message that resonates with who you are trying to attract. Be who you are instead of who you think you need to be.

Brains on Fire: Interview With Spike Jones

Brains on Fire is a brand identity and marketing company that drew my attention with these words on their home page: "Brains on Fire helps organizations build movements." 

When was the last time you heard a for-profit company talk about building a movement? Love it. That led to a more poking around on their site, a tweet about the company, followed by a series of email exchanges between myself and Spike Jones, BOF's Chief Firestarter.

I discovered a company that not only understands the nature of communities and movements, but also knows how to create remarkable relationships with fans/kindred spirits. Nurturing your evangelists or "1000 true fans" is not something I've spent much time talking about on this blog. It's one of the reasons I got so interested in Brains on Fire. 

 

"Be famous for the people who love you and for the way you love them."

--Greg Cordell, Principal at Brains on Fire

 

It's notable that Spike found me. I tweeted about the company and then he initiated a conversation. He later asked for a snail mail address to send a thank you for the tweet. This was not just over the top. It was remarkable. And it further intrigued me. Who are these guys anyway?

I asked Spike if he'd like to be interviewed for this blog and he graciously said yes. I'll talk more about my experience with Brains on Fire, as a new fan, at the end of this three-part blog interview.

For now, enjoy Part 1, where Spike talks about Brains on Fire as a company, and what they believe in as a collective organization. Part 1 is approximately 13 minutes long. 

 

 

 

 

Photo of Spike Jones by Olivier Blanchard.

Stay tuned for Part 2, when Spike talks about the importance of offline gatherings to build connections and the use of online means to provide a reason for meeting face-to-face.

Kim Dority, Part 2: Building Community, Top-Down and Bottom-Up

How many ways can we complement each others' missions? We are not here to compete but we are here to help everyone in this space. --Kim Dority, talking about how Disboom collaborates with other disability-oriented organizations.

In this second part of a four-part interview, Kim Dority from Disaboom reminds us to look broadly for community members, from the "temporarily abled" to employers to the caregivers of the disabled. She also challenges us to think creatively about collaborators and in the process, shows us what savvy networking can do for a cause.

This second part of the interview is under 12 minutes:

In the interview, I was struck by how Kim looks for stakeholders, community members, and collaborators in many places. She uses both top-down and bottom-up approaches to create a web of mutually beneficial connections. Combine this with a focus on engagement and participation and the results are truly stunning.

Where could you open up your thinking on who is in your community or who to collaborate with?  Provide comments below, so that we can continue to learn from each other.

In the third part of the interview, Kim talks about using social networking to further expand the Disaboom community.

Never Eat Alone

I discovered the book, Never Eat Alone, when I listened to an interview with the author, Keith Ferrazzi. I originally wanted to blog about the book because it has so much good advice on networking. And after doing a bit more research, I could see that he also understands how to use branding and technology to build a community.

The book covers everything from connecting with connectors to taking charge of your networking experience at conferences to his personal stories of being exposed to powerful people at a young age. Ferrazzi also covers the joy of connecting people in his network, his own system of staying connected, and getting close to power. While this may sound crass, it's not. Ferrazzi highlights throughout the book how networking is about giving first and being genuinely blessed by his network. Don't forget to check out Ferrazzi's blog.

A Bigger Voice is about connecting with others who resonate with your wisdom. Never Eat Alone shows you how to connect more artfully, with less stress and better results.

The Essence of ABV

Just as we need to capture the essence of what our clients are about, we need to do the same for ABV.  At the core, what is ABV about? It's something that I've been pondering for awhile. While working with the ABV team as their "client," we came up with these words:

"Do more good with less effort."

It's a start. Stay tuned.

Please Don't Call Me a Publicist

What you call yourself really does matter. Since starting this project, I've talked to many people about the concept. And one moniker that keeps coming up is publicist.

I've never hired one nor do I personally know any. And yes, the phrase, A Bigger Voice, probably brings up images of a megaphone, the old-fashioned kind that cheerleaders use at college games. That's really scratching the surface of what A Bigger Voice is about. Publicist implies one-way, broad exposure to create awareness. They do not focus on creating a long-term conversation to turn an audience into a community. Publicists don't screen clients for whether they have remarkable wisdom. Publicists aren't looking for 1,000 True Fans. They want a million eyeballs to browse.

I've played with other terms--humanitarian entrepreneur, wisdom entrepreneur, social entrepreneur. So far, nothing has hit me in the "that's it!" place. So if you have suggestions, I'm all ears...

YouTube Channels

My alma mater, Northwestern University, has just announced their own YouTube channel. It's an indication of how YouTube is evolving, from the curiosity of Mentos-induced fireworks to a branding and community-building vehicle. I loved the video honoring the 2006 Kellogg Alumni Master Entrepreneur, Joe Levy. 

Separate from the YouTube channel, Northwestern produced a particularly enjoyable series, called the 24@NU, interviews with 24 people on the campus of Northwestern, one for each hour of the day. Sort of a multimedia version of the coffee table books with the title, "A Day in the Life of...." Again, a great example of the convergence of technology, community-building, and branding/marketing.

Definition of Marketing

A very nice definition of marketing from Jeremiah Owyang:

"Marketing is the act of connecting customers to products."

The comments (up to 51 as I write this) are just as interesting. If it seems like I quote Owyang alot, it's because I do. He's one of the best thinkers I know of, on stuff that I'm interested in.

To put this in the context of ABV, remarkable wisdom is the product. The branding/marketing piece of ABV aims to identify the customer and figure out how to talk about the remarkable wisdom so that a connection can be made.

I don't much like the term "customer," as it doesn't have the same feeling of partnership that comes from a community member. But people know what a customer is. And yes, there are buyers for remarkable wisdom in the sense that these are people who give their attention and thought to add to the conversation.

An Innovator's Story

One of the things I love about starting something new is the learning that comes from tapping into different perspectives. Calls today with a mentor and a friend helped me to re-frame my work with A Bigger Voice.

I purposely talk about ordinary people giving full expression to their remarkable wisdom. This is where A Bigger Voice starts. And yet, the remarkable wisdom and the willingness to give it full expression makes one not so ordinary. It makes one extraordinary. It makes one an innovator. My definition of remarkable wisdom:

• Has both emotional truth and intellectual innovation.
• Comes from the experience of living life.
• Allows one to see/feel/know something old in a new way.
• Not formed until it is given full expression.
• Important for others to hear, because it improves a human condition or situation.
• Ignites others and leads them to a new place.
• Serves a higher good, rooted in all-encompassing love.

In the above description is something else--a gem that I had not fully seen until my friend, Dave, pointed this out:

One's story gives context to the innovation.

It's what gives rise to the remarkable wisdom (e.g., comes from the experience of living life.) For example, my remarkable wisdom might come from surviving a horrible middle school experience. How many other people have had horrible middle school experiences?  Lots. How I responded to that experience explains how I'm an innovator. Maybe I figured out that middle school was the perfect training ground for being a Bell Labs engineer, that navigating geeky boys and growing breasts would prepare me for being a woman in a male-oriented environment of software developers. Just maybe.

My point is that the innovation found in the remarkable wisdom and one's story are inextricably tied. It's part of fully expressing the remarkable wisdom.

Story is also at the core of great branding. Marketers already know this. I'm basically apolitical, and this story, told in a video set to music, hooks me in to this year's political race. It's a great example of telling a story to create a brand. The emotional underpinnings are palpable. Reading through the comments, this one stood out:

"jeez....this campaign is really effecting me.
Its the 3rd time I've watched this video in an hour and I've shed a tear each time."

So tieing this back to ways to create A Bigger Voice:

• What's the new thought, the innovation, to a common situation, that is part of your remarkable wisdom?
• What is your story--the narrative that explains your remarkable wisdom and helps others connect to it quickly and easily?

If you are striving for a bigger voice, look first to yourself as an innovator and second to yourself as a story-teller.